evildoers, you will have deserved the designation of sinful disobedience after faith. Moreover, when they called one another offensive names, they were not saying, “Evildoer! Disbeliever!” For when the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, arrived in Medina, some of them were already calling others by nicknames.

A group of exegetes said concerning this verse: “Do not address someone, after he has embraced Islam, by the religion he followed before Islam—for example, saying to a Jew who has become Muslim, ‘You Jew!’” This is reported from Ibn ‘Abbās and a group of the Successors, including al-Hasan, Sa‘īd ibn Jubayr, ‘Atā’ al-Khurāsānī, and al-Qurazī. ‘Ikrimah said: “It means saying to someone, ‘You disbeliever! You hypocrite!’” ‘Abd al-Rahmān ibn Zayd said: “It means calling someone by his deeds, such as saying, ‘You fornicator! You thief! You evildoer!’” In the commentary transmitted by al-‘Awfī from Ibn ‘Abbās, he said: “It means reproaching someone who has repented for sins he previously committed.”

It is well known that calling someone a disbeliever, a Jew, a fornicator, a thief, or by other names referring to wrongdoing is not the same as calling him an evildoer. Thus, His words,

“Wretched is the designation of sinful disobedience,”

do not mean calling the person being reviled an evildoer, for calling him a disbeliever is more serious. Rather, the one who reviles becomes an evildoer, in accordance with the saying:

“Reviling a Muslim is sinful disobedience, and fighting him is disbelief.”

He then said:

“And whoever does not repent—it is they who are the wrongdoers.”

Thus, He designated them wrongdoers if they did not repent of that, even though they remained included among those called believers. He then mentioned the prohibition of backbiting, followed by the prohibition of boasting about lineage, and said:

“Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you.”

He then mentioned the Bedouins’ statement:

“We have believed.”

Thus, the surah forbids these acts of disobedience and sins, which involve transgression against the Messenger and against